While you may possess all the enthusiasm in the world for a particular job, qualifications are another matter entirely. Yes, we all want a leadership role with all the perks it implies. But the difference between a Software Engineer and a Director of IT is vast, and if you’re looking to make a jump of this magnitude, be prepared for a fight. Understand going in that you’re competing with candidates who have at least one, and possibly several Director of IT jobs under their belt. What makes you a viable candidate? Perhaps more accurately, what do you have that they don’t? If you can’t answer these questions satisfactorily, then you’re probably aiming too high.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking, “I’ll try this job out and if it doesn’t work, leave after a year”. What makes a resume great is quantifiable accomplishments. They’re one of, if not THE most important thing recruiters and hiring agents look at when assessing a potential candidate, and rare is the job that will allow you to rack some up in less than 2-3 years. By all means research new career paths and potential positions. But when it comes time to find a job, be prepared to make a commitment.

Never underestimate your instincts when it comes to evaluating a resume. Having an effective structure, utilizing industry-specific keywords, and highlighting concrete successes are just one piece of the puzzle. Actively solicit feedback from colleagues to discover whether the language is ACTIVE instead of passive, whether there’s a nice flow from one section to another, and whether it’s obvious that both resume and cover letter are two parts of a whole. Investing the time to perfect your resume and cover letter will pay off in the form of a drastically shortened job search.

To give yourself the best chance of finding employment, make sure that you conduct your own research as well. Spend time researching on the Internet. Look into different job posting websites and other recruitment websites that may list potential jobs that are relevant to you. Consider going directly to company websites that you wish to apply to you. Apply directly through their website, or print off an application, fill it in, and send it off to them.

When looking for local work, newspapers will also be helpful. Look in the classifieds section and the job listing section in various local, and even national, newspapers. Look for relevant job adverts that you could apply to you and follow the application instructions listed.

Quantity is important when searching for local job vacancies. The more you apply to, the better chance you will have of successfully entering the job market.

Find a career coach. A career coach is the fastest, most effective way for you to find success in your job search. An experienced coach can pinpoint exactly what’s holding you back from your goals by looking at your particular situation, with your unique skills and experience. You can get resume help, role-play interview questions, and get strategies to help you get the offer.

Join a coaching club. There are coaching clubs that will provide you with regular topics that pertain to your job search. You can also find articles and videos online that will add to your knowledge and interview skill sets.

Go crazy with LinkedIn. (Well, not too crazy.) It’s just that LinkedIn is such an amazing resource for you. You can create a profile that will attract the attention of hiring managers and recruiters (if you need to, get professional help). You can join groups, participate in discussions, and make connections that will allow you to directly contact hiring managers for interviews.

If you are relying on the same things you’ve always done, or the same things everyone else is doing, then you’re probably not going to get great results. You want to make yourself stand out in the job market, and you want to be smart. Be strategic, and be willing to go the extra mile to land the job you want.

2. There might be a firm of nationally solicitors that you’d like to work for, and so you might want to see if they are recruiting for a role that you would be suitable for, and interested in.

3. Even in this day and age, you might still be lucky and find your dream job in one of your local newspapers. Perhaps you want to work for a more traditional firm of solicitors, who wouldn’t think of advertising their jobs anywhere else but in the paper.

4. National newspapers often advertise legal positions, and so you might find something suitable, especially if you’re already in a big city, or prepared to move house.

5. It’s not unthinkable that you might find your next legal job through word of mouth or via your friends and family. Somebody’s always moving house, or getting divorced, and so using a firm of solicitors. They might have seen an advert, or overheard someone on the train talking about needing to recruit a solicitor. Why not make the most of your contacts too?

6. General recruitment websites can be extremely effective when looking for jobs, and offer the ability to search using lots of different criteria. By having suitable jobs emailed to you on a daily basis, you’re bound to be able to find a better job.

7. Legal websites might also have information about practices that are expanding, or taking on new solicitors for a particular case, or branching out into different areas of the law. Why not keep your eye on what’s going on in the legal world and see if you can get a new job this way?

8. Solicitors’ websites also have recruitment pages, so if you know that you’d like to work in a particular town, why not see if any of the solicitors there are hiring?

9. Perhaps you know exactly who you’d like to work for, or where, and s o you might want to send off on spec applications, to see if anyone can offer you the legal job you’re looking for.

10. One of the more effective ways, is to use a specialised legal recruitment website. This means that you are only dealing with legal jobs, rather than any job that mentions legal or law, or is a job at a firm of solicitors. You might have specific skills, experience and qualifications, and know exactly what role you want, and so this might be your best chance of getting your dream job.

If you love learning about flowers, then even though you may hate sales and customer service, your love of flowers will make being a florist fun. If you love cooking, you may hate working for a restaurant owner, but you will enjoy being a cook so much more than you would working at WalMart.

The next question is once you’ve figured out you want to be a cook, how do you get started? Well you have to figure out what foundation you’ve already got. If you only know how to cook noodles on the stove, then you’re going to have to either teach yourself, or get an education in cooking. If you know how to cook anything, but you’re just missing recipes, or the experience of making things, find a small restaurant willing to teach you what you need to know.

Add to this dismal fact that only about one-half of ALL available jobs are even advertised on the Internet. And, statistics show that only ten to twelve percent of all jobs advertised are filled with applicants from the job boards. When all jobs (advertised and unadvertised) are considered, the percentage of Internet applicants filling open positions is reduced to only five to six percent.

Vegas offers better odds of “winning” than this!

IMPORTANT TO CONSIDER HOW JOBS ARE REALLY CREATED

Following is the typical “cycle” for how companies create job openings:

Hiring managers have meetings. They think through upcoming possible employment needs. Or, they may be watching the lack of performance regarding certain employees. They begin to keep their eyes open. They talk to colleagues. They make a few phone calls to people they know and trust and ask the question, “Who do you know?”

The fact of the matter is, 26.7%, or nearly three out of ten jobs are filled from internal referrals, i.e., people from within the company recommend someone for hire. Many more positions are filled as the result of external referrals, and then, of course, there are the positions that are filled by recruiters.

Here is another disconcerting fact: One-half (or more) of a company’s openings are filled before they ever get posted! So, what you see on the job boards are merely “the leftovers.”

FATE OF THE TYPICAL INTERNET APPLICATION

My recruiting firm recently posted an ad for an opening in Charlotte, NC. We received 570 resumes in just three weeks! Let me tell you what these 570 applicants can realistically expect to receive for their efforts.

Typically, hiring managers want recruiters to present only three to five candidates for any given position they are trying to fill. So, let’s assume we present the maximum number of candidates, five. Your odds of being presented are 0.9% (5/570 = 0.00877 or, rounded up, 0.9%). Since only one person will be hired, your probability of being hired is now down to 0.18%.

Here is another example.

A potential client company recently received federal stimulus money which created 20 positions. They posted the positions and received over 14,000 resumes. i.e., 700 per opening. This gives you a 0.7% chance of being presented and a 0.14% chance of being hired!!

SIX ‘CHANNELS TO MARKET’ IN JOB SEARCH

Essentially, there are SIX major “Channels to Market” job seekers use to get their information in front of a hiring manager:

• Job Boards
• Job/Career Fairs
• Recruiters
• Networking
• Direct Mail
• Telephone Prospecting

While all six approaches have their place in a job-search, far and away the MOST effective approaches to use in today’s job market are these:

• Networking
• Direct Mail
• Telephone Prospecting

Job seekers who spend an inordinate amount of time and energy on the first “channel” cited above–Job Boards–are wasting a LOT of valuable time and energy and can expect to get back little, if anything, from their efforts in today’s job market. Yes, yes, I know… it USED to work, but I am here to tell you that it no longer does!

To be successful in today’s tremendously challenging job market, which is destined to only get MORE challenging, you must learn how to properly do networking. You must learn how to properly craft direct mail (letters and email). You must learn how to properly conduct telephone prospecting. Otherwise, you are destined to continue to do a whole lot of “wheel-spinning.” You are destined to face disappointment after disappointment, frustration after frustration. Wish I could tell you differently, but that, unfortunately, is the plain, simple truth!

SKIP FREEMAN is a veteran “headhunter” with offices in the Atlanta, GA, Metro Area. His professional recruiting firm, Hire to Win, is affiliated with the Management Recruiters International network. Skip’s recruiting firm is consistently among the Top 200 offices in the MRI network.

- Some will just require that you’re in college.

- Some will want to see a bachelor’s degree or some certificate of advanced learning.

- Others, however, will be looking for past teaching or tutoring experiences from you.

Don’t fret if you’re thinking that your credentials aren’t enough; if you meet at least one requirement, then there’s a great chance that you’ll get various tutoring opportunities.

Things to include in your resume:

- References from your past tutoring experiences,

- Degrees, or relevant standardized scores,

- Coursework done at collegiate level, and

- Skills and achievement relevant to the job.

First, write your resume in Word or any other text editor. Then format it and convert it into PDF. Every time you apply for a tutoring job, remember to attach your resume.

After you’re done with your resume, you can start looking for tutoring jobs. Thanks to the internet that is really easy to do. Here are two web sites to look for your first tutoring job:

1) A good place to search at is www.care.com.

2) It is also a great idea to be updated with http://www.craigslist.org.

If you decided to go through Craigslist, you’ll find that various tutoring jobs are posted by agencies. It is best to acquaint yourself with one if you plan to continue tutoring in the future.

Otherwise, move away from agencies as they are likely to make you go through a lengthy process and give late payments.

Nevertheless, if you’re seeking long-term employment, then your best choice is to search for agencies and posting on their websites.